


Five ways Naomi didn't come back (and one she did)

by jadelennox



Category: Electric Company (1971), Love of Chair
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 09:16:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1299670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadelennox/pseuds/jadelennox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Can a boy from a small chair in a big room find happiness as an undertaker at the overpass?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five ways Naomi didn't come back (and one she did)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hhertzof](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/gifts).



> My favorite episodes of spinoffs is when they incorporate characters from the origin show, like when Jessica Tate's ghost appears on _Benson_. _Love of Chair_ did this better than most, bringing in regular cameos from the boy's old friends from before the show spun off: solving the Furniture Mystery with Fargo North, defeating the Sofa Stealer with Spidey, and the like. I always wondered why they never brought in Easy Reader, though; he and the boy were such good friends, and then we never saw them together again after the boy left to go to the room. I wonder how much Easy Reader missed the boy.

### 1.

"You coming back is groovy," said Easy, as they walked down the corridor. "The boy's been wondering about you for a while now." He paused at the door, and at first Naomi thought the door was locked. But rather than fiddling with the doorknob, he leaned in, examining a placard on the door.

"The Room. Contents: one chair. (No solicitations)," he read, and cackled happily. "Reading is out of sight, Miss Ny!"

He turned to face her and she smiled tentatively. "Aw, baby," said Easy, laying an arm over her shoulders. "You have no idea how much my main man the boy has been looking forward to seeing you again." He gave her shoulders a brief squeeze and lay down a rhyme. "Come on and see / and you will be / reconciling happily." He laughed more quietly this time. "'Reconciling,' I like that. It's a big word to read."

Naomi pointed at the door. Easy Reader kissed the top of her head. "Sure thing, pretty lady," he said, and turned back to open the door. "Time for reconciling. Reconciling!"

When the door finally opened, Easy Reader didn't step into the room. "Mmm hmm mmm," he muttered, and it didn't sound as happy as he usually was. Naomi tapped him on the shoulder, and when he didn't move, she stood on her tip toes and looked over his shoulder. The boy wasn't in the room. His baseball cap lay on the seat of the chair, covered with a fine layer of dust.

### 2.

Millie burst into the office, waving an envelope. The young man sitting behind a desk wore a trench coat, hat, and an enormous monocle. When the door opened, he flailed, stood up so quickly his chair almost fell over, and yanked the monocle out of his eye.

"Fargo North, Decoder, at your service, madam!" he yelled.

"Mr. North, Mr. North, I need your help." She ran up to the desk and slapped the envelope down upon it.

"A message," he said, "Fantastic. Give it here, and I will pop it right in the Opto Spectrometer."

Millie let him grabbed the envelope, but looked dubious. "That big green machine? That's the Opto Spectrometer?"

"Indeed," said Fargo North, feeding the envelope into the front of the Opto Spectrometer. "It will enlarge your message and make it easier to decode."

One by one, words appeared on the monitor.

_IM NOT COMING. I CANT MAKE IT. ILL FIND ANOTHER TIME TO SIT IN THE CHAIR. TELL THE BOY ILL SEE HIM LATER. I WOULDNT WANT TO MISS HIM._

Fargo North rubbed his chin. "Do you think the person who sent this message is sick? Perhaps they have a cold! They say "ill" several times."

"But not in a way that makes any sense," said Millie, hands on her hips. "' _Ill find another time_ '? What does that mean?"

"Hmm," said Fargo North. "And some of these aren't even words, like ' _im_ '. I wonder if something has been removed from these words, like a letter or maybe a punctuation mark."

"Like an X?" asked Millie. "I don't like X's very much, so I tend to remove them. But then it would be ' _xim_ ,' which doesn't make sense either."

"Wait! Say that again!" Fargo North leaned right up close to Millie's face, startling her.

"' _Xim_ makes no sense?"

"That's not how you said it," he said, waving his hands. "You said you _don't_ like X's, and xim _doesn't_ make sense."

"Ohhhhh," said Millie, a pleased smile spreading over her face. "There's a punctuation mark in some of those words."

Fargo North smiled. "Indeed. What if, instead of a missing letter, we have a missing apostrophe? What would your note say, then?"

Millie put her hand on Fargo North's shoulder and smile at him. "You're awfully good at this, Mr. North. Why don't come to dinner with me?"

It wasn't until much later, when they were eating pancakes with syrup over at Vi's Diner, that either of them remembered they hadn't finished decoding the letter.

### 3.

Spider Man!  
Where are you comin’ from?  
Spider Man!  
Nobody knows who you are.

That's right boys and girls. Your friendly neighborhood Spider Man

in

**Spidey Meets Naomi**

Spidey starts the day in Ms. Singh's Math class, looking for Naomi.

"Hi, Spider Man," says Ms. Singh. "Today we're studying long division. Interested?"

No thanks!

"Okay, if you're sure," Ms. Singh answers. "Long division's pretty awesome, though. But if you're just looking for Naomi, I'd try Dr. Warren's art class."

Spidey waves his thanks, and webslings to Dr. Warren's art class. In Dr. Warren's art room, the class is building a scale model of Godzilla out of coconuts and cotton balls.

"Hello, Spider Man," chorus all the students, even though it is art class and not music class.

Dr. Warren smiles. "Would you like to help build the Tokyo skyline, Spidey?"

Not today.

"Your loss," says Dr. Warren. "Naomi's in Jennifer of the Jungle's Biology classroom."

Spidey borrows a coconut as he leaps to Biology.

"Spidey!" calls Jennifer of the Jungle, happily. Paul beats his chest, almost knocking over an array of pipettes. "Are you here to learn about the genetics of bananas?"

Spidey shakes his head. Paul eats a banana.

"Well, if you're looking for Naomi, you just missed her. She had to head to reading class, and said she'd try to catch you another day. Sorry, Spidey!"

Spider Man!  
Where are you comin’ from?  
Spider Man!  
Nobody knows who you are.

### 4.

It’s time for a very short book: Chicken Little

Mrs. Naomi was out pecking corn when she saw the corn falling from the sky.

"The sky is falling," she said to her brother.

"Why don’t you go visit the boy?" asked her brother. “Then you will be in the room and you will not care about the sky falling.”

"No," said Naomi.

The End

### 5.

.

tr

yst

tryst

tr

y

try

tr

avel

travel

tr

ek

trek

tr

uck

truck

tr

affic

traffic

tr

ansfer

transfer

tr

ains

trains

tr

ack

track

tr

ied

tried

tr

agic

tragic

### +1

The boy is sitting.

Naomi is standing.

But that doesn’t really tell you anything, does it? The boy is sitting backwards on the chair, his legs splayed to either side. He is resting his arms and chest against the back of the chair. His hat is slightly off center, as if he has been sleeping in it.

Naomi is not so much standing as leaning, slouched against the door frame, one leg kicked out in front of her. She is wearing a green smock and a tired grin.

Is she thin? Is she fat?

Why do you want to know? It’s not really relevant.

What matters is Naomi and the boy, standing or sitting, together. What are they waiting for?

Nothing, anymore.

The boy is sitting.

Naomi is standing.

Nobody is waiting.

Tune in tomorrow. Who knows what will happen?


End file.
